At 4:00 a.m., the plant is lit up with white light.
In front of each of the six assembly lines, a 36-inch display hangs, with data constantly pulsating, keeping an eye on the workload of the workers in real time. From start to finish, they are responsible for the production, testing, packaging and packing of cell phones.
The continuous roar of the machinery was like a lullaby, making me drowsy. Qin Xiaojun, who was upgrading his workstation next to me, kicked me feebly with his hands and feet, and his tired face twisted a little: “Are you deaf? “
I was indeed going deaf, and this was my seventh month at the factory.
In October 2020, after the National Day, I entered this electronics factory.
With the launch of new machines by major brands, manufacturers were rushing to catch production, recruiting a lot of workers and offering extraordinarily generous packages. In order to get a share of the pie, agents and shell companies joined together to sell dog meat with sheep’s head.
At that time to go online recruitment platform to look for work, as long as there is no educational requirements, no matter what job, no matter how careful job seekers, around and around, and finally back to the basics back to the general labor positions. So much so that the factory often appear a phenomenon, the newcomers in the dormitory chat, talking about the job applications, none of the same.
The “old people” are much smarter and directly contact the intermediaries to talk about the remuneration. A factory will outsource the recruitment to multiple agencies, and the agency industry is full of wolves and fierce competition. When you meet smart people, they will compare with each other and raise the price like an auction. The elderly will soon understand the market this year.
I was hired as an hourly worker, but the factory did not cover meals, and I was shy. The regular workers have a daily meal allowance of 20 yuan, which is regularly paid to the card, and there is a newcomer bonus of 3,000 yuan after 15 days of work.
In order to fill up my stomach, I applied for a regular job. Fifteen days after I joined the company, 200 yuan was credited to my card number. The agent said it all: “I said I’d give you a bonus, but I didn’t say it was a one-time bonus. “
The most important thing for new workers is medical examination.
The medical examination for general workers is one of the most rigorous positions in all industries. Vastly nearly a hundred people occupy every window of the hospital, sweeping every seat open space, urine test, electrocardiogram, vision test, respiratory rate, measurement of height and weight, each complete to good. In order to dispel the wariness of employees, the universal agency will reimburse the cost of these tests, and then double it afterwards from the salary. There was a popular segment on the internet that said that he didn’t feel well and didn’t want to spend money on medical checkups, so he signed up to go to an electronics factory. It’s not a gag, it happens all the time.
After the medical examination is three days of training sessions, the company is more humane, more afraid of the staff is impatient, every day in accordance with 80% of the daily wage for distribution. The lecture instructor spoke from 3C to 6S, and tried to include industry jargon in every sentence, and in order to reflect professionalism, two sentences in English would come out from time to time. Each word we all know, combined together just can not understand. A big brother sitting next to me was full of doubts.
“can fucking understand these words of people, but also to come to the electronics factory? “
But when it comes to the workshop is not allowed to bring electronic devices, we understand, the employees who applied for the job instantly left half.
Two
I joined the production line, mainly responsible for cell phone assembly.
The factory just received the production plan, more than thirty factory workers are all new, the line leader a day ago or another factory all-round workers. Everything here was brand new except the assembly line.
The factory has constant meetings and a strong bureaucratic system. In the first three days of work, the line manager had no less than ten meetings with kernels such as “You can’t drink freshly boiled water or eat fish without scales. meeting. The line manager is a Qinghai native, every meeting summary, will be “I from a poor countryside step by step to the present rely on my efforts” to emphasize again.
My first work station is to install the rear camera, cell phone products are a large factory in the face of foreign markets, a number of low-cost machine. Although the price is low, the camera is generously designed with three. Installing the rear camera required fingertip pressure to insert the camera into the group slot, but the daily workload was as high as 2,000 phones, which meant I had to install 6,000 cameras a day.
After a few days, the thumbs and index fingers of both hands began to feel pain. The pain was mild at first, but as I used my hands for longer periods of time, the sharp stinging pain became more intense. Every time I pressed a camera it was like a needle was inserted through my nail cap, and by the end of the day, it felt like my fingers were riddled with holes.
My fingers were overwhelmed and I adjusted numerous ways, but only those two fingers were able to finish the job. The back of the workstation was waiting, and if I couldn’t keep up the speed, the phones would pile up. I had to live and die counting the number of phones while cheering myself up. I told myself, “I made wonderful eyes for 2,000 phones today.
Soon, I was overwhelmed by the excruciating pain.
A week later, my thumbnail was bruised from a broken capillary. The pain intensified and the previously calculated amount of psychological comfort was futile. At times I was devastated, at times exhilarated, as if I was forcing myself to endure a torture I had to endure. When I approached the line leader during the lunch break to explain the situation, he accused me of not being able to suffer, then he pointed out that my technique was wrong and instructed me on how to work.
In the afternoon, I tried the same routine, but the pain was still unbearable.
When I approached the line manager again to change my position, he was vague, but finally put the problem on my inability to suffer. I thought the line manager would compromise and the next day I would be in a condescending posture to reprimand me for my unworthy creation and inadvertently reveal that I would be replaced.
After all, in a world where humanitarianism is all the rage, taking a step back from each is the best way to deal with problems. I demonstrated the conversation numerous times in my mind and rehearsed how I would have to speak to appear euphemistic enough.
The next day, I walked into the shop with a spring in my step and saw two workers sitting at my workstation, working on my job.
The line manager asked incredulously, “What are you doing here? “
It was only through the intermediary coordination that the line manager later transferred me out of my post, but because of this incident, I made a connection with the line manager.
This also made me realize that the greatest characteristic of an electronics factory is that there is never a shortage of people, and from that point of view, it is never humanitarian.
Three
After the transfer of positions, I next to Qin Xiaojun is a twenty-one year old boy, love games, in a well-known game platform will be all kinds of games bought no less than three hundred. Silent at work, the mind is thinking about the virtual world of sword and shadow. The two of us have the same taste, and once we meet, we put on a posture of hating each other and talk from the bottom of our hearts.
We are not responsible for important projects, the finished product needs to be very urgent, dry for a long time, 3C, 6S instructions as a deaf ear, blatantly began to muddle. Cell phones piled up in stacks, equipment inspection was haphazard, and problems with the screen were handed over to the all-rounders, who ended up wrestling with the screen on the ground. People often tease: “We are giving foreign friends to build a pile of garbage. “
The factory is a closed building, no windows, the only access to outside information indoors is to chat with colleagues. Qin Xiaojun and I moved from the game to current affairs, from current affairs to the economy, and from the economy to the baldness of the line length. We both talked freely and enjoyed each other’s company. After work go back and actively learn knowledge, and then create topics for each other at work.
Over time, we both no longer have anything to talk about.
This we unspoken, each other caused a what topic, about a what event, even in the heart of the rolled, but also to pretend to be puzzled and very interested in the look. This led to the “Aso” skill analysis I listened to no less than three times a week, Arthur Morgan’s background until now I know it backwards.
When the line leader came over to rush the production out, we shared a swear word and laughed. Someone put on a tawdry love song, we cursed again, and then laughed. Despite the feigned perfection, but sometimes also from each other’s eyes to catch a hint of despondency, words as early as yesterday to chat, only the production line of cell phones continuous.
Chatting is the only thing that makes us feel truly alive.
Especially every night shift, if there is no sound of talking in the workshop, shaped like a ghost box. People who have worked in electronics factories have a perception that the night shift is easier than the day shift. The night shift management is not strict, there is no leader to inspect the workshop, the requirements of the line leader is relaxed, as long as the task is completed in time, but not excessive behavior can be allowed.
Some workers would sneak in a USB stereo.
In the early hours of the morning, all corners of the plant coincidentally sounded DJ dance music, jitterbug songs, classic old songs. At the same time produce a chain of interlocking contempt, DJ dance music despise the shake music of the gods of the street, shake music of the gods despise the classic old songs of the old, classic old songs despise DJ dance music of the non-mainstream. Stigmatization chain and then expand, all kinds of songs in the form of unified despise rubbing songs to listen to the workers without money.
But the U disk is easy to bring in, take out difficult, the company has a clear rule that prohibits all electronic devices out of the workshop, which means that every update of the song will have to take the U disk out once. One of our active music players didn’t believe in the law and hid the flash drive in his pants.
With all the physical evidence, it was hard to argue.
Finally, he was docked half a month’s salary for harassing employees. From then on, he also became the end of the contempt chain for listening to songs.
Four
The flow of personnel in the electronics factory is like a train station.
When I first arrived at the factory, the dormitory plus my total of six people. In order to develop a relationship with the housemates, I remembered names and hobbies one by one, and invited them to a meal with great enthusiasm. Two weeks later, the roommates plus me are still six, but the five have changed. After that, often even five names are not yet familiar with one by one to go, the next five immediately fill the position.
After staying in the factory for a long time, I often saw that the same day came the next day to leave, and then simply ignored anyone who was going to leave anyway. This also leads to whether I work or rest, there is no social circle.
Can not make friends, and sometimes need to watch out for others. Factory traffic, other people do not care, dust caps have become a hot commodity.
Once close to work, I went to the toilet to put the dust cap on the baffle, came out and found that the cap was missing. No hat can not work, the line manager had to find a dirty hat to me. When I went out to eat at noon I put the hat in the closet forgot to lock, ate half suddenly remembered, secretly thought bad, not surprisingly, the hat and disappeared.
In a hurry, I had to follow the stolen way to search for other people’s hats. Locker room has many closets unlocked, I ran from this plant to another plant, and finally stole a hat. After the job, I tucked the hat inside the innermost part of my dust jacket with my heart in my mouth and double-checked that the lock was strong. However, the next day at work, the scene in front of my jaw – my closet door was violently pulled open, check everything intact. Only the hat was missing again.
Three hats were stolen in two days, and I was teased that I was playing against “Silas” (a game character from League of Legends). After that, the hat was always in my left pocket wherever I went.
During my second month at the factory, I learned to self-regulate.
I set the time as the dividing point, 7:00 to 11:00 is the calm period, just go to work, should not be emotional; 11:00 to 12:00 is the anticipation period, there is an hour to eat, to keep happy. 1:00 to 3:00 is the entertainment period, chatting with the next friend, dissipate the irritation of the heart. 3:00 to 5:00 is the meditation period, the sky is high and the sea is wide for my ideas. 5:00 to 6:00 is the persistence period, persist in another One more hour, and I will be off soon.
It seems that all I have to look forward to in life is to get off work.
On October 31, 2020, the League of Legends finals, SN took on DWG at the main venue in China, which happened to be the night shift, from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. During the break, the game was at match point. It was a night shift, from 7pm to 11pm, when the game was on the break. After dinner, the number of absentees reached 40%, and one of the lines with more boys was so short of staff that they couldn’t start work. The line leaders were about to inform, and the absentees walked in with frustrated faces, and one boy cursed loudly as he walked: “Rubbish! Put four dogs in the game and you can win! “In the first part of the second half of the night, the workshop was full of people, the atmosphere was hot, and everyone enthusiastically participated in the chat.
Everyone reviewed the game, analyzing weaknesses and pointing out mistakes. There were three people who got together to recreate the game: inserting eyes, draining smoke, pushing lanes, clearing lanes, first blood, first dragon, first bad decision.
Another line would hear it and yell back.
“The biggest mistake was the twenty-one minute wave! “
Someone extended from the game to the player’s lace, and a girl on the sidelines came to join the discussion. Someone recalled the history of the game’s characters, and the crowd ended up fighting over who was the “eternal god”.
We were very productive that night.
At the end of the discussion, everyone concluded, “The domestic game is over! “
Five
In addition to talking nonsense, masturbation, the workshop also created a set of rigorous and thorough entertainment – smoking. Open flame is prohibited in the workshop, lighters and matches are not allowed to be carried inside, so cigarettes are also listed as prohibited objects. The company attaches great importance to the prohibition of smoking, three orders, and fussed with the allocation of a security guard not far from the toilet supervision.
Under the countermeasures, workers hid lighters and cigarettes inside the toilet paper basket, inside the pumping equipment, and taped to the bottom of the urinals. There was only one going out card per line, and the risk of a single person without a lookout wind was too great and easily outweighed the loss. The united and wise working people then made friends on each line and gathered the gang to assist in the crime.
But the precision of time was also a problem, so a leader came out on each line. At the height of the small team size, a dozen smoking teams were on the schedule in a single day. Especially in the latter part of the night, team members kept a close eye on the clock and took time off from each line to go out as soon as the time was up. The team had a good tacit understanding that the time deviation was no more than two minutes.
The team generally arranged three people, one person in front of the water cup rack to drink water, critical moments on the water cup collision rack to make a loud noise. One person washes his hands in the hand-washing area and hears the sound to increase the water flow and splash water on his face. Inside the toilet smoking with one hand and chewing gum with the other heard the sound, and hurriedly stomped out the cigarette and hid it in the paper basket, then sent the gum into the mouth.
Everyone in order to save time to smoke very aggressive, three people all carry out the time is not more than five minutes. Some people walk while learning Yu Qian’s tone: “so smoking three days will be able to smoke out of lung cancer. “
Everyone laughed and was full of energy.
During that time, I found that Qin Xiaojun had a great need for cigarettes.
He had to run to the toilet three or four times a day, and the all-round worker on top of the job was deeply disturbed by it, saying he was the king of cigarette addiction. Later he quietly told me that he was not addicted to cigarettes, strictly speaking he did not smoke at all, and left his post purely to be lazy, the depression in the workshop was more powerful than the addiction to cigarettes.
Sometimes, Qin Xiaojun and I would also go singing.
We have no money, only to go to cheap KTV, the equipment also fell, once I and Qin Xiaojun to a KTV opened in the village, looking for old hits, search Jay Chou are cover versions, helpless only wired microphone connected to the phone. As a result, the microphone is old, always poor contact, must be pressed by hand to make it properly connected.
Singing to the depths of emotion, the sound came to an abrupt halt, and the shabby self-built house emitted a sound like the echo of a wolf’s howl, and the atmosphere was all gone.
The two of us held a fire, Qin Xiaojun proposed to give the boss a little lesson, to the broken hole in the sofa pee a bubble. When I returned to the dormitory, I noticed something was wrong, my pants were sticky and wet, Qin Xiaojun rubbed his hand and smelled it, then kicked the bunk rail out of alignment.
The workers are not sure what to do, asking what to do, so angry.
Qin Xiaojun shouted in anger: “to go to the public toilet to sing! “
In addition to singing, many people are soaking in the Internet cafe during the break.
The residential area near the factory black Internet cafes all over, some Internet cafes also do not have a computer room, no unified system, even if only a few shabby popular online games, but also to a few “outgoing video Even if there are only a few shabby popular online games, they can still solicit customers with a few “streaming videos”.
With the pressure of peer competition, businesses are pushing the envelope on a single network of entertainment to carry out humane services. At the end of each day, several mysterious buses appeared on time, several bosses holding a message board with “free laundry, free bath” standing in front of the plant, while Smoking while looking for workers with dust jackets.
The price of a black Internet cafe, whether it is for a night or a day, is 15 yuan, and there are some ruthless people in the factory who directly bring their clothes and bedding to the fixed Internet cafe.
Sometimes I think of myself, I can’t see the end of the day.
Every shift break, the restaurants around the factory would come alive. But at the end of the day, everyone would mention the “line manager”. Later, during one of my meditations on the assembly line, I sadly realized that no matter what we talked about, we still couldn’t escape the “electronics factory” in the end. Even outside the electronics factory, we are trapped in this world.
In the early hours of that morning, Qin Xiaojun shouted at me several times next to me.
The music in the workshop suddenly became louder, and Qin Xiaojun’s face gradually became clearer as he waited anxiously for me to comment on a game. The phone fishtailed out on the transmission board and the lights suddenly brightened. I blinked, speeding up to deal with the pile of phones in front of me, and said aloud to Qin Xiaojun, “Fuck! I fell asleep! “
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